Jihad

Jihad in contemporary usage is a contested term, often translated in quite different ways as either an Islamic “holy war” conducted against any “infidel” broadly conceived of as a “non-Muslim,” or as a peaceful striving against the self as a form of spiritual reformation toward personal and communal peace in opposition to more bellicose motives. Themes of self-sacrifice, or martyrdom in the path of God, are often associated with these interpretations. [Page 633]These interpretations are narrow dimensions of the full etymological and historical signification of the word, derived from the Arabic trilateral root j-h-d, signifying a striving toward a specific objective. The semantic field of the root indicates its broader usages within Arabic social, political, and legal discourse. Terms such as ijtihād (the work of ...